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A Dealership Perspective
When times get tough we all look for ways to reduce expenses. The average dealership is spending nearly $650 per vehicle on advertising. In our dealership, we knew if we could advertise more effectively and build market-resistant customer relationships, we would reduce our ad spend and sell more vehicles.
We turned to the Internet. Almost 90% of car buyers search online before they buy. As a result, we have developed a unique Web marketing strategy that focuses on two things:
- Deliver a real experience.
- Build community through the dealership Web site.
We’re in a relationship business. Although we’re developing an online dealership, the goal of Internet marketing should always be to get real people into our real dealership. We blend our eCommerce strategy into radio, TV, and print, using messaging that consistently drives prospects and customers back to our Web site. We respond quickly to Internet leads with a phone call or personal e-mail. And, we never just reply to an e-mail; we answer the question. Whether our customers are in the store, listening to a radio ad, or on the other side of a computer, our success depends on the strength of the relationship.
What do wine and cheese have to do with Web marketing? To bring the community and relationship sides of our business online, we launched the Germain Community Web pages. On these pages, we promote and encourage registration for a variety of dynamic customer and community events, including customer clinics catered by local restaurants and wine and cheese events at the dealership. We also feature customer testimonials and encourage customer feedback. Germain Community is about the ownership experience, rather than the buying experience, and gives customers a reason to regularly visit our site and our dealership.
We look for ways to continually add value to our community. We actively promote and sponsor philanthropic events, such as the annual Tour de Grandview bike race to raise money for local charity. These events are featured on the Germain Community pages, complete with pictures, details about upcoming events, and the opportunity to register. Recently, we had tremendous reaction to the launch of our Germain Green pages that provide information about how to live and drive more environmentally friendly.
Create additional value and loyalty by using your site to establish a significant presence in your community. When you partner with Reynolds and think outside the box, wine and cheese can help you reduce expenses and advertise more effectively too.
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Shaun “NIFF” Kniffin is Director of Internet Sales and Business Development for the Columbus, Ohio, region of the Germain Motor Company.
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Reynolds’ WebMakerX® helps Germain Motor Company sell more and create lifelong customers.
Germain’s Web strategy has helped increase its Internet sales as a percentage of total sales by 38%.
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| Click here to watch Shaun talk about his experience with WebMakerX. |
Click here to learn more about WebMakerX. |
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Your business success is our number one priority. We’re committed to providing maximum value for your investment in both the ERA and POWER dealership management systems (DMS). Our focus has been on creating and improving solutions that help you address your business priorities, and that’s more important now than ever.
We continue to invest heavily in both systems, listening to what you tell us is important. We’re building new solutions and enhancing existing applications to help you save money, increase profits, get more value out of your technology, and improve operations. You’ll also get new enhancements sooner, as we’ve moved from two major ERA software releases a year to three. We’re excited to share with you several recent ERA solutions, including:
- Computer Assisted Instruction – boost productivity and employee effectiveness with this fully integrated training option for your ERA system, included as part of your monthly support fees.
- General Manager Exception Reporting – resolve potential problems and profit leaks quickly with this exception reporting tool you can customize for your dealership.
- AutoCheck® Plus – speed up the used vehicle sales process and increase credibility with complete vehicle history reports that include the industry’s only vehicle history score, the AutoCheck ScoreSM.
You’re in this for the long haul, and we’ll be here to support you with both ERA and POWER. You can count on valuable products, built by people who understand your business. We’re committed to making business better.
If you would like to share feedback, success stories, or ideas, please e-mail marketing@reyrey.com – we’d love to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Jon Strawsburg
Vice President, Product Planning
Reynolds and Reynolds
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Click to watch a video about
Computer Assisted Instruction.
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By Terrence O’Loughlin
4/30 Update: The Red Flags Rule Enforcement date is now August 1, 2009.
Click here to view the FTC announcement.
Is your dealership ready to comply with the Red Flags Rule and minimize risk for costly penalties? Are you ready to protect your business from the damage of identity theft?
With this law, dealers are required to write, implement, and maintain an ongoing prevention program to help detect and evaluate red flags for existing and new customers and respond to those risk factors accordingly. Keep in mind, your program must be appropriate for the size and complexity of your dealership.
Considerations for Your Program
As you are finalizing your plan, it is important to consider the types of accounts your dealership offers and maintains. What methods do you use to open these accounts? Do you allow customers, employees, or service providers to access accounts? What are your dealership’s previous experiences with identity theft? Evaluating these findings and the following information can help you implement the most effective program.
- Sources of Red Flags
- FTC/Agencies Red Flags Rule and other supervisory guidance.
- New identity theft methods dealers will identify.
- Dealership’s own experiences.
- Categories of Red Flags
- Alerts, notifications, and warnings received from consumer reporting agencies or other providers, such as fraud detection services.
- Suspicious documents or personal identification information.
- Unusual use of, or suspicious activity related to, an account.
- Notices received from customers, victims of identity theft, law enforcement authorities, or others regarding possible identity theft in connection with accounts.
- Detecting Red Flags
- Obtain and carefully evaluate authenticity of customer’s identifying information.
- Use additional methods to verify customer’s identity when in question.
- If a credit transaction, review the consumer report for recent suspicious activity.
- Watch accounts for suspicious activity.
- Responses (based on degree of risk posed by any particular detected red flag)
- Not opening the account.
- Notifying law enforcement.
- Not collecting an account/not selling account to a debt collector.
- Not responding.
For compliance purposes, your dealership should at least attempt a basic Red Flags program and reinvigorate your safeguards program, as it complements the Red Flags Rule and is also mandatory. However, knowing how costly identity theft can be for your business, protecting your bottom line should be the driving force behind writing and administering an effective plan. For further protection, consider seeking personalized legal advice.
For information on tools available from Reynolds to help you with Red Flags compliance, please call 800.767.7879.
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Terrence O'Loughlin
Director of Compliance
Reynolds and Reynolds |
Schedule Your ERA Version 9.0 Update Today!
Be sure to schedule your ERA Release version 9.0 Electronic Software Delivery (ESD) upgrade. Remember that it is important to queue a system backup to run the night of your ERA upgrade.
With ERA v.9.0 Reynolds is introducing proactive scheduling for release updates. We know you have other things on your mind, so beginning with ERA Release v.9.0, if you haven’t scheduled your ERA upgrade by the sixth week of the load window, Reynolds will proactively schedule a date for your dealership’s upgrade to the latest ERA release. Loads will be automatically scheduled between May 11 and May 31. You will have the option to modify the proactively scheduled date to another date within the release load window.
This change is being implemented to help ensure your dealership doesn’t miss the opportunity to receive the latest ERA improvements and you are staying current with the latest supported release. For customers still using ERA release v.8.0, it is especially important to schedule your v.9.0 upgrade because ERA release v.8.0 will be entering End-of-Support status on June 15, 2009.
To obtain the latest release information, simply log on to https://my.reyrey.com. Click the link in the News & Announcements section on the left side of the home page to find all the Enhancement Highlights broken down by dealership department, the more detailed “ERA 9.0 What’s New Guide,” ERA user manuals, and other ERA related information.
If you have any questions, please contact the Technical Assistance Center at 800.767.0080 or access the Online Support tab on https://my.reyrey.com.
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Dealer Workshop Videos Online
Click here to watch our Dealer Workshop videos.
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We Owe Integration for ERA F&I and Service
Your ERA system is now enhanced with automated We Owe Integration between variable and fixed operations, enabling you to plug profit leaks and increase customer satisfaction.
- Easily assign vehicle accessories and aftermarket products as we owe items in the deal and print the necessary forms to ensure accuracy.
- Ensure efficient communication between all departments with automatic notification to your service department of we owe items from the vehicle sale.
- Improve customer satisfaction by ensuring all we owes are completed when your customer returns, with the we owe review screen that recaps all items from the deal.
- Have the right parts available at the right time with convenient access to we owe information in service, including Appointments, Reception, Rapid Reception, Vehicle Information, One-Step Service, RO Closeout, and RO Review.
- Stay on top of your business with a record of all completed we owes stored in Service History and the ability to review the status of we owes – outstanding, completed, and set to expire.
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Want More Information?
- Go to https://my.reyrey.com and enter your login information or click Help for assistance.
- Click the Online Support tab.
- Enter “We Owe” in the Keyword to Find field and click Search to locate Reference Manuals. Or enter document ID “1924455” in the Search by Document field and click GO.
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Reynolds offers LIVE, virtual, interactive classes through Reynolds University (RU) Online that help drive DMS utilization and integration with other Reynolds products. The online classes offer personal interaction and training with experienced ERA instructors who help you and your team learn through hands-on activities based on real-world situations, effectively and economically.
Each month, RU Online features a Session of the Month, highlighting ways you can improve your operations.
April’s Session of the Month is “Increase Service Revenue with Recommended Services.” This class will show you how to increase repeat business through customer follow-up. You will learn how to develop forecasts, postcards, and phone lists of recommended services based on your customers’ service histories.
To learn more about these courses and when they are being offered, log on to https://my.reyrey.com and select RU Online at the top. Click on Session of the Month along the right side. This will bring up the list of available courses at this time. Once you’ve selected a date and time, click Register and then Finish. You will receive a confirmation e-mail and a link to join the session.
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